From columnist Leonard Pitts:
President Obama? No, not yet. But, the intention of Sen. Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, to move toward that goal seems clear with this week's news that he is forming an exploratory committee to raise money toward a possible White House bid. Count me among those who regard the bid as a foregone conclusion.
Strike while the iron is hot. The man is a rock star, a combination plate of handsome, intelligent and charismatic that has his supporters giddy.
While mainstream media have seemed intrigued by the senator's heritage, the same, unfortunately, cannot be said of the extreme right blogosphere. There, one seldom reads any reference to Obama that does not make pointed reference to his middle name: Hussein. Then there are those who observe that only a single consonant separates his surname from the first name of the al-Qaida leader.
Barack Obama is a black man with a Muslim name who would be seeking the presidency in a historically racist nation currently at war against Muslim extremists. One wonders if there is enough handsomeness, intelligence and charisma in the world to overcome all that.
For my money, though, Obama's signature asset is not his brains, his looks or his magnetism. Rather, it's this: he seems reasonable. He seems a man who can be persuaded by logic. It's an attractive trait, rarely seen in government in recent years.
